Many fans of the film "Ferris Bueller's
Day Off" have been under the assumption for many years that a soundtrack
album was once released, but is now "out of print." Though the soundtrack
to John Hughes' film is considered by many to be a bonafide '80s classic,
Hughes refused to ever release an official soundtrack album. He felt
that the selection of songs used in the movie was simply too eclectic and
varied to make for a cohesive album. The closest thing to be released
was a promotional 7" single with "Beat City" by The Flowerpot Men on the
a-side and "I'm Afraid" by Blue Room on the b-side. This was given
out at certain screenings of the film in 1986.

In recent years, a number of online
fans began compiling their own "unofficial soundtrack" for the film, featuring
all the songs used in the film - some from very rare vinyl - as well as
some memorable dialogue. We at Crapple were fortunate enough to hear
a copy of this soundtrack, but ultimately felt pretty dissatisfied with
the end result. Most of the tracks - including dialogue - sounded
as if they came from low quality mp3s, and had surface noise and a warble
in them. Certain pieces of dialogue were presented in vastly truncated
form, such as Ferris' "they bought it" rant (which ended after he says
"how could I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this?").
Moreover, certain major characters - such as Rooney and Jeanie - had no
dialogue whatsoever. Certain semi-musical segments that could have
been included were also passed over, such as the "Shana/Jeanie" doo-wop
song and Ferris' synth version of the "Blue Danube Waltz." And a
few of the track choices were questionable, such as the glaring omission
of the film versions of two very important segments: the "Star Wars" theme
that plays while the parking garage attendants are driving the Ferrari,
and "Twist And Shout" with the marching band and parade noises. It
was a bit baffling to hear the full length studio versions of those songs
in the middle of the disc, particularly "Star Wars."

So needless to say, we at Crapple set
about creating our very own version of the soundtrack.

Titled "Ferris Bueller's Day Off: 15th
Anniversary Special Edition Soundtrack," our version - we feel - improves
greatly upon past versions of the soundtrack, both in terms of material
chosen, quality, and even artwork. The method behind our version
of the soundtrack was to create more of an interactive feel for the listener.
Out of the 28 tracks, 15 are taken directly from the film itself.
These tracks are culled from the DVD and are presented in full digital
stereo. "Star Wars" and "Twist And Shout" are definitely more exciting
to hear this way, with the latter being the real heart of the soundtrack.
And the abundance of dialogue tracks merely serves to give the music tracks
context.

Two of the songs - "Beat City" and "I'm
Afraid" - are still culled from rare vinyl (with one or two pops audibly
edited out by an unknown source) and thus are still of questionable quality.
But due to the sheer rarity of these two tracks, it's a miracle they even
exist at all. Nearly every other track was culled from first generation
sources, or very high quality mp3s. Additionally, everything is presented
in chronological order.

It has been 15 years since "Ferris"
appeared on movie screens and thrilled an entire generation of young Americans.
It's about time the soundtrack was done justice. While our version
isn't perfect, it's probably as good as it will ever get.

UPDATE: MAY 13TH, 2007

By an insane stroke of luck, we now OWN a copy of the ultra-rare 7" single, containing "Beat City" and "I'm Afraid"! We made an offhand post on the Steve Hoffman Music Forum a few months back about "musical holy grails" and were contacted a few weeks later by DJ Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber from KFAI in Minneapolis. He informed us he had a copy of the single that he played on his radio show and that he'd be glad to make a fresh needledrop for us. After hearing how excited we were, he decided to SELL us the single...for a very decent price, I might add. We did needledrops of both sides and then passed the wavs on to Noodlemaps from the Steve Bartek Forum, who did some clean-up work. It's probably safe to say that these vinyl-only tracks are now the best they will EVER sound. They are leagues better than the old mp3s that were circulating (especially "I'm Afraid"). Needless to say, the soundtrack has now been updated accordingly! Innumerable thanks to Ron Gerber and Noodlemaps!

We took this opportunity to also update a few of the other tracks on the soundtrack. You can find details about that below.

Tracks

TRACK

SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

QUALITY

1 • "They bought it"

DVD

Ferris' entire opening rant,
from "they bought it" to "I'd still have to bum rides off people."

Excellent

2 • LOVE MISSILE F1-11
(EXTENDED VERSION) - Sigue Sigue Sputnik

CD-R(Vinyl)

Song that plays in background
during Ferris' opening rant. This is a remix, but is the actual version
used for the film.

Near mint. Very minor,
occasional vinyl surface noise.

3 • "Bueller?"

DVD

The entire roll call scene
from "Adams?" to "no problem whatsoever."

Excellent

4 • "Let my Cameron
go"

DVD

Cameron's bedridden song
with Ferris' little commentary about how "tight" Cameron is.

Excellent

5 • JEANNIE (THEME
FROM "I DREAM OF JEANNIE") - Hugo Montenegro

MP3(CD)

Plays when Ferris is dancing
around his room.

Excellent. Any anomalies
present are inherent on the original recording.

6 • Ferris' Blue Danube
Waltz

DVD

Ferris' brief synth rendition
of the "Blue Danube Waltz."

Excellent

7 • "A righteous dude"

DVD

A bit of Ed and Grace's
conversation about Ferris, from "what is so dangerous about Ferris Bueller..."
to "they think he's a righteous dude."

Excellent

8 • "The 1961 Ferrari
250 GT California"

DVD

A bit of Ferris and Cameron's
dialogue about the Ferrari. Opens with the sound of the garage doors
opening and ends with "it's his fault he didn't lock the garage."

Excellent

9 • OH YEAH - Yello

CD

Plays while Ferris and Cameron
are talking about the Ferrari. A remix also plays during the closing
credits of the film (see track 28).

Excellent

10 • "What are we
gonna do?"

DVD

When Ferris first gets in
the Ferrari with Sloan and Cameron. From "what are we gonna do?"
to "neither would I" and engine noises.

Excellent

11 • BEAT CITY - The
Flowerpot Men

7" single(Vinyl)

Plays while Ferris, Sloan
and Cameron first cruise into Chicago.

The second poorest sounding
track on the CD. Whoever encoded it obviously had a very worn copy
of the vinyl 7". A little muddy sounding, with some occasional crackles.
Two spots are missing a *split* second of music, which leaves a little
jump. Many attempts were made at finding a better quality mp3, but
all mp3s seemed absolutely identical to this one.

UPDATED: As stated above, this is now a fresh needledrop that has been cleaned up a bit. Sounds SUBSTANTIALLY better than the poor mp3 that has circulated for years. There were no skips on the vinyl and no NoNoise was added, which automatically makes this leagues better than what we already had. Bright and clear with little surface noise.

12 • "Save Ferris?"

DVD

A student encounters Jeanie
in the hallway and begs her for a donation to "save Ferris." Ends
with "you heartless wench!"

Excellent

13 • BAD - Big Audio
Dynamite

MP3(CD)

Plays when the trio gets
to the parking garage.

Excellent

14 • "Star Wars" and
the Ferrari

DVD

Scene where the two parking
garage attendants take the Ferrari out for a little spin. Starts
with burst of "Star Wars" and fades at end of scene.

Ferris addresses the crowd
at the parade. From "Ladies and gentlemen..." to "Cameron Fry, this
one's for you."

Excellent

17 • DANKE SCHOEN
- Wayne Newton

MP3(CD)

The first song Ferris "sings"
at the parade.

Excellent

18 • "Twist And Shout"
at the parade

DVD

The second song Ferris "sings"
at the parade. Begins with Sloan's question to Cameron, "what do
you think Ferris is going to do?" and ends with the parade applauding and
cheering.

UPDATED: This now begins with the echoed PCM stereo version of "Twist And Shout" from "The Beatles Anthology" DVD series and segues smoothly into the film version. This way, there is no random and jarring dialogue from Sloan and Cameron at the beginning.

Excellent

19 • RADIO PEOPLE
- Zapp

CD-R(CD)

Plays as the trio is cruising
around Chicago, after leaving the parking garage.

Excellent

20 • Cameron goes
berserk

DVD

Cameron screams after realizing
how many miles have been put on the car. Starts with Ferris saying
"this is where Cameron goes berserk" and fades after Cam's finished screaming.

UPDATED: This bit of dialogue now begins with Cameron and Ferris talking about how many miles are on the car. This bit of context makes the dialogue more enjoyable.

Excellent

21 • "I heard that
you were feeling ill..."

DVD

Jeanie gets inadvertantly
serenaded by a singing telegram nurse. Begins with the doorbell ringing
and ends with Jeanie abruptly slamming the door.

Excellent

22 • I'M AFRAID -
Blue Room

7" single(Vinyl)

Plays while Sloan tries
too sooth the catatonic Cameron and Ferris talks to the camera.

Unfortunately, the poorest
sounding track on the CD. Scratchy vinyl surface noise is apparent
throughout the entire track. Like "Beat City," there are several
places where skips were edited out, thus leaving a split second jump.
Again, several attempts at finding a higher quality mp3 were to no avail.

UPDATED: Also a fresh needledrop from the newly acquired 7" single. Very bright and clear with slightly more surface noise than "Beat City" (mostly audible in the fade out). Again, no piecing together was necessary, as there were no skips, and of course no NoNoise was added.

23 • TAKING THE DAY
OFF - General Public

CD-R(CD)

Plays on a boombox while
Ferris and Sloan take a dip in the pool.

Excellent

24 • Shana/Jeanie

DVD

The doo-wop song that plays
in the background as Jeanie says goodbye to Garth in the police station.
Begins with "let's not ruin this with a lot of talk" and ends with Jeanie
delightfully crooning "Danke Schoen."

Excellent

25 • THE EDGE OF FOREVER
- The Dream Academy

CD-R(CD)

Plays while Ferris and Sloan
talk about Cameron and then kiss.

Excellent. Maybe a
very very slight warble.

26 • MARCH OF THE
SWIVELHEADS - The (English) Beat

CD-R(Vinyl)

Ferris runs home.

Excellent! You would
never guess it's from vinyl.

27 • "Life moves pretty
fast..."

DVD

Ferris addresses the camera,
at home, safe in bed. Begins with "yup, I've said it before and I'll
say it again..."

Excellent

28 • OH YEAH (EXTENDED
DANCE MIX) - Yello

CD-R(Vinyl?)

Pieces of this remix play
over the end credits, as Rooney confronts the bus driver and students on
their way home.

Excellent. Again,
if it's from vinyl, we certainly can't tell.

Artwork

Rear tray and front cover

The image choice for the
front cover was rather obvious and was scanned from the DVD. The
logo, however, was taken from the old VHS cover, since the font used on
the DVD is different than the theatrical release. The back cover
is a Warhol-esque collage of Ferris' face, from the last scene after the
credits.

Back cover and inner tray

It was decided that a trio
shot should be placed pretty prominently in the artwork, since Cameron
and Sloan provide the backbone of the film. A promo shot of the three
of them in the Ferrari was put on the back of the booklet. This shot
almost made it to the rear tray. The cool shot of Ferris with shades
was almost put on the back of the booklet, but instead made it into the
inner tray. "Leisure Rules," the original tagline for the film, appears
at the left of the tray, which makes for a neat effect when the CD case
is closed.

Booklet gatefold

The "Unofficial Soundtrack"
had nothing inside the booklet, as well as no track info whatsoever.
We at Crapple had to rectify that. We gathered many screen captures
from the film, darkened them and shrunk them down for a collage.
Our aim here was to represent every major character from the film, as well
as the more memorable minor ones. The song credits are also included,
and are presented exactly how they appear in the credits of the film (though
the "Danke Shoen" typo was corrected).

Disc face

Another trio shot was chosen
for the face of the disc: the gallery outtake shot from the DVD booklet.
The "Save Ferris" quote was originally going to be at the left of the inner
tray, but instead made it onto the disc itself, running around the perimeter
of the disc. Serendipity made for a neat effect, as Ferris' eyes
peer out at you from the middle of the disc.